The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
1890 – 1930
Rural China in the province of Anhwei and Kiangsu
Later the city of Nan King


Themes
Life-sustaining bond of human beings to the land,
Importance of family as the central unit of society
Class conflict
The place of women in traditional society

On the birth of their daughter “It is only a slave this time — not worth mentioning,"
Wealth as destroyer of traditional values
How the lack of traditional values can be the downfall of a family.


Traditional Society and Culture
http://www.country-studies.com/china/traditional-society-and-culture.html

China Country Studies
http://www.country-studies.com/china/


Ch’ing dynasty (Qing) a Manchu dynasty in China that lasted from 1644 until 1912,
the last imperial dynasty

http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/CHING/CHING.HTM

Timeline – look for Qing Dynasty http://www-chaos.umd.edu/history/time_line.html

Confucius The Sayings

http://www.wsu.edu/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_1/confucius.html
Confucius
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/confucius/

Maps
http://www.chinapage.com/map/map.html

The Boxer Rebellion (1900) and Reforms of the Early 1900’s
Boxer Rebellion – a Chinese secret society, the *Righteous Uniting Band, that in
1900 attempted by violence to drive foreigners out of China and to force Chinese
converts to Christianity to renounce their faith (*the Chinese words were
mistranslated as “Righteous Uniting Fists,” and members became known in
western papers as the Boxers)

http://www.smplanet.com/imperialism/fists.html

The 1911 Revolution led by Sun Yat-sen
Sun Yat-sen – a Westernized Chinese revolutionary who had first tried to
overthrow the Ch’ing in an abortive coup attempt in 1895, leader of the1911
Revolution and often referred to as “The Father of the Revolution”